


Bats in Winter

by OrangesAndLemons3



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 07:06:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 4,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12765714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangesAndLemons3/pseuds/OrangesAndLemons3
Summary: Nightwing and Red hood manage to get lost. Very lost. As in, alternate universe lost. With the help of a new friend, will they manage to get home?





	1. Chapter 1

Red Hood jumped across the Gotham rooftops, before sighting a familiar figure. He sighed, resigning himself to the inevitable as the person caught sight of him, and began to swing towards him, easily flipping and jumping over the Gotham skyline with professional grace. 

"What's up Little Wing?" Nightwing threw a grin towards his 'brother'. Said brother groaned. "Aww, don't be like that. You know you love me really."

"Keep telling yourself that." Hood muttered under his breath, before hearing the sounds of some sort of conflict in the distance. He cocked his head, listening for more. 

Apparently, he wasn't the only one to have noticed. Nightwing turned to him, puppy-eyes in full effect.  
"Team up?" He suggested innocently, eyes practically begging him. 

Hood cursed under his breath. "Don't get in my way." He turned away quickly, and jumped away towards the scuffle. 

"Yay!" He heard Nightwing exclaim, like the child he was, before following him. 

They arrived at the scene of an illegal drug smuggling at roughly the same time. They stuck to the shadows, and Hood prepared his hand guns, before Nightwing elbowed him and put his finger to his lips, indicating that they should stay silent. Red Hood rolled his eyes, before slipping out a couple of baterangs and throwing them at the nearest thugs.

Then, a full out fight began. Nightwing swooped in, silently dropping his opponents without them even realising he was there. Hood decided to screw subtlety and hopped into the fights guns a blazing. 

They fought their way through the masses of grunts, looking for "the Boss Man". Nightwing suddenly pulled Red Hood to the side, face serious. 

"Doesn't this seem suspicious to you?" He hissed. Hood blinked (not that you could see behind the mask). "There are way more people than usual, and the entire thing just... Feels like a trap."

"So, now we are going on feelings? So much for some of the worlds greatest detectives." Hood drawled sarcastically. "So what do we do now, 'Oh Great One Who Knows All'?"

Nightwing smirked. "I like that that title. We may have to keep that. As for what we're going to do; we are going to spring the trap."

With that thought, they both swung around the corner, and proceeded to beat the crap out of everyone they saw. 

After some considerably awesome butt-kicking, the pair found themselves face to face with the Boss Man himself. 

He smirked, before pulling out a strange blue-and-black gun out of his jacket. Both of the men's eyes widened in horror, as he sent a shot directly at Hood's chest. 

"JAY!" Nightwing shouted, dropping Hoods secret identity for a second in his shock. Then another shot was sent towards Nightwing's chest, and Hoods eyes widened, trying to warn his brother, before the pain from the... Bullet? No, energy-shot-thing took over completely, and he blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
When Nightwing came around, he realised he was in some sort of glass cage, was stuck without his gear, and that Little Wing was having some sort of argument with a tall, bald man with a long flowing coat and an eyepatch, who looked suspiciously like a pirate. Pirate-Man seemed to have noticed he was awake, and subsequently, broke off his argument with Hood to talk to the pair of them. 

"Who are you?" Pirate-Man asked. 

"Who are you?" Nightwing fired back. 

Pirate-Man thinned his lips in disapproval. "Nick Fury. Director of SHIELD. And you?"

Nightwing just grinned. "Nightwing. My little brother over there is Red Hood." He heard a sarcastic snort from Hood. 

"Nice try," Fury said dryly. "Real names?"

"None of your beeswax." Nightwing turned away, as Hood snorted again, this time out of amusement, rather than denying family connections. 

"Listen, you may think-" Whatever Fury had been about to say was cut off when an alarm rang through the... Whatever they were on. Fury glared at them, before swooshing away from the pair, leaving them in silence... Other than, you know, the blaring alarm that was threatening to kill their ears. 

"So. Little Wing. Where do you think we are?" Nightwing asked. 

"We are in the 'Helicarrier'," Hood said. "In a cage that will drop if someone hits that button. Did I mention the fact that we are floating high above the Atlantic Ocean?" He said, while nodding towards a large red button clear on a control table. 

"Oh joy," Nightwing murmured. "So this heli-thing is under attack and we have no way to defend ourselves, and we are likely to be sent plunging into the ocean in a giant glass fish-bowl."

Hood let out a strange laugh. "Optimistic. But yes."

Suddenly, the door slid open. The brothers regarded it with varying degrees of shock. Hood recovered first, and dragged out Nightwing to recover their missing gear, and get off this flying death trap. 

However, they had just finished 'suiting up' when the wall beside them exploded. A man with a strange hat on was giving them an evil grin. When people start grinning evilly, Nightwing usually works out there's trouble. 

Without a word (which is strange; villains love monologue-ing, and heroes are usually talkative) Funny-Hat blasted Hood into a wall, before disappearing into thin air. 

Nightwing sprinted over to Hood and checked his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief - there was a strong pulse, so Hood was just unconscious. He picked up his brother (with great difficulty, he might add) and jogged out of the room. 

He finally managed to get onto the top platform. He sprinted towards one of the jets parked on the side. 

"Jets can't be too different from the Batjet right? How hard can it be?" He murmured to himself as he hopped in. 

The answer to that would be very, very hard. He swerved and dived, trying to avoid crashing. Whatever was happening on the heli-thing was successfully distracting SHIELD long enough for the pair to get away unnoticed. 

Eventually, the jet couldn't take Nightwing's piloting any longer, and crashed just beyond to outskirts of New York.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After Jason came around ("Stop mother-henning Dick, I'm fine!") the two set off to the large city in the distance. Using his amazing hacking skills in a nearby Internet Café, Dick managed to work out that they were in New York, and something else very interesting. 

"Jay! Come here a for a second!" Dick called to his brother. "Look at this!"

He turned the screen of the computer towards him, and typed in 'Gotham'. The results came up of a small fishing village, population: 200. 

"200? There are more people in Arkham Asylum alone!" Jason scoffed. 

The next strange thing: No Batman. No Superman. No Wonder Woman. No Justice League. There were however, a group of superheroes calling themselves 'The Avengers'. 

"Cool name." Dick snickered. A further search showed that the team consisted of 6 people - Captain America ("Flag-Man?" "Shut up Jason."), Iron Man ("Sooo... Tin Can?"), Thor ("Lightning God? Really?" "I thought I told you to shut up?"), Hulk ("Strong man SMASH!"), Black Widow ("Like that song by Iggy Azalea?"), and Hawkeye ("Horray. Another archer."). 

"Jay, your comments are really not useful." Dick sighed. Jason chuckled. 

By the time to pair left the Cafe, it was dark, which was probably a bad decision on their part. As they were passing a dark alley (of course) they heard a scream. They exchanged glances, and sprinted down it. 

They saw a young woman surrounded by a group of thugs. Without thinking (as per usual), Jason punched one of them in the face, and shot another in the knee before either knew what was happening. Dick floored a thug that was heading for Jason, and turned to stop one behind him... Only to find that one punched into a wall. He looked over at Jason to see if he was responsible, but as he was currently trying to disarm the thug nearest the woman, he decided it wasn't him. But then who could it be? 

Suddenly, a man dropped down from one of the roofs surrounding them, and punched someone with... Was that a metal arm?

Once all the thugs were groaning or unconscious, Dick turned to their helper. 

"Who are you?" He demanded. 

"None of your business. Who are you?" He asked, and Nightwing had a strange flashback to his conversation with Fury. 

"I'm Red Hood, this is Nightwing," Hood interrupted the pair. He turned to Dick. "We should probably change."

Dick nodded in agreement. He glared at the strange man. "Stay." He said firmly. 

After he was changed into his Nightwing gear, he returned to the alley. The stranger was still there, surprising Nightwing, as he thought that he would have left. 

"So. Who are you?" Nightwing asked again. 

This time he answered. "The Winter Soldier." 

Thank you for reading! Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
Bruce sighed. Again. His sons had been missing for 3 days, and there were still no leads! The worlds greatest detective had found nothing. Nada. Zero. Nothing that even suggested they were still alive, but Bruce was too stubborn to believe they were dead. Something would have been found by now. He was taking out the rage he felt on the criminals he fought, and that meant he was putting Robin in danger. He had to find his sons soon. 

Tim was glued to the Batcomputer, searching for any clues as to where his brothers were. So far, all he had found was some fuzzy security footage of the two of them jumping past a camera, but nothing else. Batman, Robin and Red Robin had combed the site over many, many times, but could still find nothing. He was hopelessly stuck. He didn't even know why they were going together. Okay, Dick he could understand; but Jason? He sighed for what felt like the thousandth time, before knuckling down to work again. 

Damian, despite his uncaring countenance, was actually rather concerned with the disappearance of Nightwing and Red Hood. Well, more Nightwing. He was quite attached to his eldest brother. Not that he would admit it. He had looked all over Gotham with his father, and questioned all of the villains he captured. Unfortunately, he had made no progress. This meant that neither Drake or his father had made any either (because they relied on him oh so heavily). He disappeared upstairs to check on Titus. 

Alfred was under a lot of stress. Masters Bruce and Tim were barely eating, and Master Damian was causing more trouble than ever, without Master Dick there to rein him in. The trio weren't sleeping either. They were always out on patrol, into the early hours of the morning; not back with any more information than they had left with. Alfred was currently baking cookies, as they were the only thing Master Tim would stop researching for to eat. As he got the freshly baked cookies out of the oven, he hoped and hoped that Master Dick and Master Jason were safe. 

Barbara was a wreck. She and Dick had just started dating again, and what does he do? He disappears! She had moved into the Batcave with Tim, as she could research better there. She was also using her fathers police records to see who could be behind this, but they weren't particularly useful. She was continuing her job as Oracle, of course, to help Batman and Robin in the field, but otherwise all her time was spent looking for Dick (and Jason. She hadn't forgotten him). 

Cassandra had moved back to Gotham particularly to help with the search. She slunk around the underworld, questioning crime lords and petty drug dealers. She had found no information at all. No one knew anything! She found this highly improbable, and knew that someone was hiding something. She just had to keep searching. 

Stephanie was trying very hard, whether in patrol with/for Batman and Robin, helping in the Batcave or just being there for moral support. She may not have been as close to the pair as she would have liked, but family was still family, no matter what. She was trying to help Alfred keep the family in order (as in, making sure they complied to basic human needs, like food and sleep) but it was hard. Everyone was taking the missing Bats seriously. She bounded into the kitchen to help with some more cookies. 

All in all, the family were taking the loss hard. 

\-----------------------------------

Some insight into the Batfamily back home. Thank you for reading! Love you all! Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

Nightwing sat down on the floor of an abandoned apartment in The-New-York-That-Wasn't-In-Their-Universe. He looked up at 'The Winter Soldier', who stared calmly back. Red Hood cleared his throat. 

"So. What's happening now?" He asked. 

Nightwing frowned. "Well, we need to get home. I'm sure B is trying to find us-" Hood snorted at this. Nightwing ignored him "-so we should try too. What about you, Winter Soldier?"

The Winter Soldier grimaced. "I'm trying to take down HYDRA." He said. 

"Who?" Asked Hood.   
"As in the Greek monster?" Nightwing asked at the same time. 

"No. They are an evil Nazi organisation." 

"Nazi's? Honestly? Nazi's? That's so cool!" Hood grinned as Nightwing glared at him. 

"How about you help us if we help you. Deal?" Nightwing asked, sincerity in his voice. 

The Winter Soldier deliberated. While they acted open, friendly, neither of them had told him their actual names. Well, he supposed that he hadn't told them his name either. They were good fighters though, as he noticed in the alley. He could use allies as well. He decided, and nodded. 

"On one condition," The Winter Soldier said, almost glaring at the two vigilantes. "Names." He demanded. 

"You first," Hood fired back. 

The Winter Soldier hesitated for only a second before saying "James Buchanan Barnes"

Nightwing thought for a bit, then said "Richard 'Dick' John Grayson-Wayne."

Hood stared at him in incredulity, but submitted under the force of the glares the others were sending him. "*sigh* Jason Peter Todd-Wayne." 

James nodded to himself. "Good. Let's get started by raiding a HYDRA base. They're sure to have something to help you get home... Why can't you get home exactly?" He asked, realising he hadn't been told. 

Nightwing winced. "Ah. Well, we sorta live in another dimension. We're kinda stuck here." He was almost mumbling at the end. 

The Winter Soldier nodded in understanding, as if he met people from alternate dimensions all the time. "Okay. We will start scouting that base tomorrow."

Plan settled, the trio decided to get some sleep, before their hit on the Nazis. 

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Bucky, Dick and Jason are rather trusting in this, but that's because Bucky is tired of not trusting, and the other two have nothing to lose as nothing they know exists. As always, thank you for reading and please review! I love you all!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

They woke at dawn the next morning (with a lot of complaints, mainly from Jason), and began to start to scout around a HYDRA base they had found in the middle of nowhere. Currently, Red Hood was sitting on the edge of a nearby cliff to learn the patrol schedule for the outer perimeter. Nightwing was hidden in a tree, observing the interactions between the guards. The Winter Soldier was also watching the guards somewhere but neither of them knew where (he was almost as bad as B when it came to trusting people).

They say like that all day, with Red Hood only moving to note down times and places in a notebook he had managed to pull out of his utility belt (he had everything in there!).

Eventually, (at like, midnight) they left their hiding places. Red Hood had cramp from sitting still for so long. They trudged back to their sort-of safe-house, unsure on whether their work today would be enough to help them in the raid. 

Once Dick had found blankets, made Hot Chocolate, and make a fire in the shifty (at best) fireplace, they began to talk together, questioning each other on personal preferences, likes and dislikes and whatnot. 

Suddenly, Dick asked, "Why do you want to stop HYDRA so badly?" He spoke softly, as if allowing James to refuse to answer. Jason half expected that he wouldn't even look at Dick after that question, but he was proved wrong once James sighed and began speaking. 

"I was born in Brooklyn in 1917. Once I was 24, America declared war on Germany, and I joined the army. I had a best friend, whose name was Steve Rogers, who wanted to join the army more than anything. Steve wasn't a violent person; he just didn't like bullies. However, Steve was too frail to join, and was refused 5 times before finally being accepted. He had volunteered for a very dangerous experiment, which was meant to turn him into a 'Super Soldier'." Jason was about to ask what his childhood friend's experiment had to do with his vendetta against HYDRA, but Dick kicked him to make him shut up. 

"The experiment worked, but the head scientist was shot, stopping the process from ever being repeated. Steve was then used as a media monkey for a bit, before stealing a plane with his two new friends, Howard Stark and Peggy Carter, to come and rescue me and some other soldiers who had been captured by a rogue Nazi division called HYDRA." Jason made an 'Ohhhhhh' sound. 

"After that, Steve became 'Captain America' and began beating up HYDRA with the help of the 'Howling Commandos'. One of our missions involved a train. Steve and I infiltrated said train, and we were fighting some evil HYDRA robots-" Dick spluttered something about robots in the '40's "-when one of them managed to blow up part of the wall, and I was pushed out. Steve tried to grab me, but I fell anyway.

"I was unconscious and dying, and had lost my arm, when a HYDRA scientist found me and dragged me back to some kind of lab. They replaced what was left of my left arm with metal, and brainwashed me. I was put on ice, unless I was needed for a mission. I never knew anything, and my past was never discussed in front of me. 

"Eventually, one of my missions was to kill Captain America. However, I recognised him after we fought on a bridge, so I was brainwashed again. We fought once more, and I saved his life after he almost drowned after he fell off a Helicarrier. I left HYDRA, and here we are." He concluded his rather compact version if his past. 

Jason was pretty sure his eyes looked as if they were about to explode out of their sockets, if Dick's face was anything to go by. 

James turned away abruptly. "You can tell me your stories tomorrow. We need sleep."

Both of the Bat-boys looked at each other, before lying down to sleep. 

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Thank you for reading! Sorry if the explanation wasn't very good; I am really new at this. I hope you enjoyed this, and please review! I love you all!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

While the trio were preparing breakfast, Dick began to tell James his story. 

Dick spoke softly, and didn't look up to meet James' eye. Jason, who had heard this all before, didn't pay particular attention.

After breakfast (which involved a lot of arguing between the benefits of toast and cereal), Jason told his story. After the heart-to-hearts were out the way, they decided to crack down to business (well, Dick did. Jason rolled his eyes. James just looked slightly confused.) 

"So, as we're kinda stuck here for a bit, we'll start on your problem," Dick said, looking at James, "Hydra. So, what do you guys think?" 

"I say we burn those $¥#%•&£# to the ground," Jason growled. 

Dick nodded, looking thoughtful. "We'll start by raiding the base we were scouting yesterday. Jason, what did you get down last time?" All eyes shifted to Jason. 

Jason snorted at Dick's dramatics, but pulled out his notebook and began flicking through it. "Well, the base is heavily fortified, and if we try to go on the front entrance, we're screwed. The guards are posted too close together for us to quietly knock one out, so we're gonna have to sneak in." He finished. There was silence for a minute, before Dick broke it with a clap, as he rubbed his hands together. 

"Well, what are we waiting for then?"

 

Nightwing flipped and twirled around the HYDRA agents. The plan had been slightly messed up, as they had gotten spotted before they had even reached a lift. 

The plan had been to get in, get to the control room, plant bombs, get out, and then to blow this place in to the sky. Then, the alarm started up, and the other two decided that (as he apparently had a too 'flashy' fighting style) he was their distraction as they attempted to salvage what they could of the plan. Stupid plan. 

At this point in his musings, he had reached a doorway with a sign that read:  
"KEEP OUT. TOP SECRET. DANGER OF DEATH."  
So of course Nightwing had immediately walked into the lab-place. 

The only thing in there was a large machine with some sort of ruby in the centre of it. Nightwing jogged over to the computer, and began to hack. His eyes widened at what he found - a way for Hood and him to get home!

However, this didn't solve the Winter Soldier's problem. And they had promised to help. So, he downloaded the information he found into his wrist computer, grabbed the ruby (which was what opened portals), and skedaddled. 

 

Thank you for reading! Please review!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After they had blown up the base and met up, Nightwing told the other two what he had found. Hood looked immediately happier, but the Winter Soldier looked slightly more depressed (it was hard to tell - he was good at hiding his emotions - but Nightwing was used to reading Batman). 

Nightwing turned to him. "We're not leaving until we've found a solution to your problem, don't worry. The only problem is how."

Jason snapped his fingers. "Didn't you say you knew Flag Man?" 

At James' confused expression, Dick elaborated, "Captain America."

"So why don't we don't ask him for help with this? From what you told us, it doesn't seem as if he would mind." Jason continued. 

James opened his mouth, then closed it. He sighed. "Fine. But you two are coming with me. You'll need Stark's help with that ruby-dimension-hopper thing anyway."

"Who?" Dick and Jason chorused, looking confused. 

"Iron man. Smartest guy on this planet." He said off-handedly, turning towards where they left their *borrowed* motorbikes (they stole them off a street gang). 

The Bats exchanged glances, before following. 

 

A few hours later, they arrived in New York. They abandoned the bikes, and changed into civilian clothing. 

They made their way towards a large tower. "Ostentatious much?" Jason muttered. He shut up after a quick Bat-Glare from Dick. 

They walked in. (Well, they scaled up the wall and broke in through a window, but same difference, right?) 

Almost immediately, they were confronted with guns, arrows, shields, suits of armour, magic hammers, and a Hulk. 

"Bucky?" Asked Captain America. James nodded and smiled awkwardly, raising his non-metal hand in greeting. Cap pulled him into a hug. "I thought I lost you," He whispered hoarsely. 

Jason cleared his throat. "Not that we don't love the emotional reunions here, but we're kinda on the clock here," he said, looking pointedly at Dick, silently telling him to start explaining. He was not the best at public speaking. 

Dick tooled his eyes, but obliged. "Well. Hmm, where to start..." He trailed off, thinking. "My brother-" (cue disbelieving snort from Jason) "-Red Hood and I are from another universe and we need help getting home. Errr... Help would be much appreciated?" Dick asked, shrugging at Jason's glare. 

"Why should we help..." Clint trailed off under the force of Dick's puppy-dog eyes and Jason's glare. 

Cap spoke up. "They helped me find Bucky so I think we should help them," he said firmly, glaring at the rest of the Avengers, daring them to disagree. They didn't. 

"Hold on. Aren't you two the people who escaped from the Helicarrier during Loki's attack?" Asked Natasha, scrutinising them. 

"Who?"  
"What?" Were the eloquent replies she received. 

Dick snapped his fingers. "Ohhhh. You mean the heli-thing with Funny-Hat and Pirate-Man!" He exclaimed happily. 

Tony snickered, "Pirate-Man," 

"You're Tony Stark, right? Iron Man?" Jason asked. 

"That I am," Tony winked, "Genius, Playboy, Billionaire-"

"Yeah, don't care," Jason interrupted. He grabbed the ruby off Dick. "Here. Get us home," he shoved the gem into his hands. "In the meantime, where's the kitchen?"

"Oooh, food!" Dick happily bounced after his brother. 

The Avengers looked on, shocked. Bucky (who had grown rather desensitised to the pair after several long days with them) smirked at the confusion of the groups faces. 

 

Three-and-a-half hours later, and they were ready to go. The dimension-hopper-machine had been built, and Thor was gearing up to power it. The two vigilantes were strapped in. 

"Bye! Have fun! Punch HYDRA for us! It was nice meeting you! Next time, let's meet in our dimension!" Dick grinned happily. 

Jason just groaned. 

There was a flash of light, and they were gone. 

Fin

 

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The end! Thank you all for reading, and, as always, leave a review!! 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first ever fanfic, so please be nice!  
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.


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